WETNAS

A Systematic Approach in the Western
Balkans, Turkey and Moldova
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS
Women Entrepreneurs
training needs analysis
A Systematic Approach In The Western
Balkans, Turkey And Moldova
published by
South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning
Selska 217/IV,
10000 Zagreb,
Croatia
for the publisher
Sandra Ronevi
Sonja egvi
South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning,
2014. All rights reserved.
author
SEECEL
editors
Efka Heder
Maja Ljubi
ISBN 978-953-56732-6-2
Copies of this book are available at the SEECEL website at
www.seecel.hr
Printed in Zagreb, Croatia 2014
Printed by Magnus Gubernator d.o.o. (etiri Boje Group)
Design & Layout by Jelenko Hercog
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available in the
Online Catalogue of the National and University Library in
Zagreb as 867335.
The South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial

Learning (SEECEL) was established in 2009 as a direct
result of the initiative of eight pre-accession countries
of South East Europe (SEE). It is a regional institution
whose mission is to promote the development of a
lifelong entrepreneurial learning system and entrepreneurship as key competence in line with Small
Business Act for Europe.
SEECEL is financed by the European Union (EU)
through the Multi-beneficiary Package under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance and from the
national budget of the Government of the Republic of
Croatia through the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and
Crafts.
All SEECEL member states share full ownership
of the process and actively and equally participate in
the governance of SEECEL, content development and
implementation.
SEECEL is governed by an international Steering
Committee composed of two representatives from
each member state. The representatives come from

the Ministry of Education and from the relevant ministry in charge of the Small Business Act for Europe
(SBA). This ensures political policy dialogue between
the worlds of education and economy.
SEECEL also cooperates very closely with: the European Commission (DG Enlargement, DG Enterprise
and Industry, DG Education and Culture, DG Regional
Development and DG Employment and Social Affairs),
European Training Foundation (ETF), the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC).
As the first institution developed from the SBA,
SEECEL shares all of its programs with European and
international institutions and agencies, EU member
states and other interested parties. SEECEL activities
are an integral and complementary part of the SEE
2020 strategy, the EU Danube Strategy (EUSDR) and
the future EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR). In sharing its activities and contribut-
ing to other congruent strategies and initiatives, SEECEL generates benefits for SEECEL member states as
well as EU member states and fully respects all EU
policy recommendations in the field of lifelong entrepreneurial learning development.
Since its establishment, SEECEL has been recognised by the European Commission as the best practice example and the most advanced development
in the field of lifelong entrepreneurial learning. For
its work SEECEL has been awarded the international
Best Practice Award for structured regional cooperation by the Knowledge Economy Network and the European Projects Awards IPA 2013 as the second best of
all on-going projects.
In 2011, with the support of Swedish Govern ent
m
through the Swedish Development Instrument,
S
EECEL has expanded its activities to women entrepreneurs. In addition to the existing eight SEECEL
member states from pre-accession region, Moldova
has joined from the EU Eastern Partnership.
SEECEL Women Entrepreneurs (WE) member

states1 are (in alphabetical order):
Albania
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
Kosovo*
Macedonia**
Moldova
Montenegro
Serbia
Turkey
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status,

and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the
Kosovo Declaration of independence
** The Former Yugoslav Republic of
1
In the rest of the text, the country abbreviations will be (in

alphabetical order): ALB, BIH, HRV, KOS*, MKD**, MDA, MNE,
SRB, TUR
Both the public and private sectors around the world

are increasingly paying special attention to women
entrepreneurs as one of the main forces that is driving
integrated, inclusive, smart and sustainable growth
and economic development.
While public policy sets broad directions and builds
momentum and consensus for change, it is the private
sector and its entrepreneurs that reach these policies
and translate them into sustainable action. Women
entrepreneurs are a vital part of these actions. Specifically, they are an integral part for job and wealth
creation, and can critically contribute to increasing
competitiveness.
The true value and potential of the contribution
by women entrepreneurs in the SME sector has
consistently been highlighted in national strategies,
programs and action plans in a majority of the nine
SEECEL participating countries.
Two main premises need to be kept in mind:
Women entrepreneurs are the fastest-growing
sector in the economy;
Women entrepreneurs face unique challenges
and barriers in starting or growing a business that
succeeds;
Foreword
A comprehensive analysis was carried out, bolstered by

the SBA assessment process. The conclusion was that
there has not been a systematic approach in training
needs analysis for women entrepreneurs, in any of the
nine participating countries.
The Women Entrepreneurs Training Needs Analysis System has been identified by national stakeholders as a crucial element in fostering the competitiveness of women entrepreneurs. The systematic training
needs analysis of women entrepreneurs should address: the discrepancy between the expressed needs
for training; the training offered; and on the lack of
data on the training needs of women entrepreneurs.
The SEECEL instrument and associated methodology has been implemented on-line in the nine SEECEL
member countries. This publication provides an overview of the findings, conclusions and recommendations from first regional WETNAS, all of which could
lead to greater system efficiency, the elimination of
unnecessary costs, and support for women entrepreneurs with adequate training that will increase the
rate of women start-ups and contribute to a competitive and sustainable economy in the participating
countries and the region as a whole.
This document is the result of a broad and complexef- These developments would not have been possible
fort of SEECEL WE member states to promote policy without the contribution, expertise and knowledge
development and a supporting policy framework for of national and international experts. We would
women entrepreneurs by establishing a system to therefore like to thank the following institutions and
follow the training needs for women entrepreneurs - experts: SHGPAZ - Albanian National Professional
Businesswomen and Crafts Association, Chamber of
WETNAS.
Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Srpska,
Croatian Chamber of Economy, Womens Business
We would like to thank the governments of:
Association SHE-RA, Business Confederation Macedonia, Centre for Advancement of Women in Busi Albania
ness ICAWB, Directorate for Development of SMEs,
Association of Business Women in Serbia, The Union
Croatia
of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey
Kosovo*
TOBB supported by KOSGEB as well as Mr Edmond
Macedonia**
Sheshi, Albania; Ms Jelena Ivoevi, Bosnia and Her Moldova
zegovina; Ms Vesna tefica, Croatia; Mr Gazmend
Montenegro
Mejzini, Kosovo*; Ms Gabriela Kostovska Bogoeska,
Serbia
Turkey
Macedonia**; Ms Lucia Usurelu, Moldova; Ms Ana
ebek, Montenegro; Ms Duica Semenenko, Serbia;
We would also like to express our gratitude to the SEE- Ms Nezahat Yilmaz, Turkey and the group facilitator,
CEL WE member states national SBA coordinators for Mr Igor Nikoloski, Macedonia**. We are also grateful to
their full support and cooperation, without which this Ms Nataa Miskin, Embassy of Sweden in Sarajevo; Mr
step forward would not have been possible.
Sanjin Arifagi and Ms Dragana urica, RCC; Ms Mary
We would especially like to thank the Govern- Ann Rukavina Cipeti, GTF.
ment of the Republic of Croatia, represented by the Our special thanks go to Mr Anthony Gribben, Ms OleMinistry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts as a SEECEL na Bekh and the ETF Enterprise team. SEECEL also
cofounder and the Kingdom of Sweden and Swedish looks forward to exchanging ideas and the knowledge
International Development Cooperation Agency for with the ETF and to continuing the excellent cooperatheir financial support.
tion that has already been established with them.
Our appreciation goes to implementing partners
for this project, the Regional Cooperating Council
(RCC) and the Gender Task Force (GTF).
Acknowledgements
list of abbreviations

CoP - Community of Practice

EC - European Commission

EU - European Union

ETF - European Training Foundation

GTF - Gender Task Force
HRD - Human Resource Development
NACE - Statistical Classification of Economic
Activities in the European Community
NGO - Non-governmental organisation

RCC - Regional Cooperation Council

SBA - Small Business Act

SEE - Southeast Europe
SEECEL - Southeast European Centre for
Entrepreneurial Learning
SIDA - Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency
SME - (Micro) Small and medium enterprise
TNA - Training needs analysis

VET - Vocational education training

WE Women Entrepreneurs
WETNAS Women Entrepreneurs Training Needs
Analysis System
10
Executive summary
In 2011, the Southeast European Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (SEECEL) initiated implementation of
the project Women Entrepreneurship A Job Creation
Engine for South East European Region (9 Countries) in
cooperation with the Regional Competitiveness Council and the Gender Task Force, financed by the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency.
The projects objective was to promote women entrepreneurship best policy practices in the following
countries, which are the SEECEL WE member states
(in alphabetical order):
Albania
Croatia
Kosovo*
Macedonia**
Moldova
Montenegro
Serbia
Turkey
in line with the Small Business Act (SBA) for Europe

and the support of national and regional womens
Acknowledgements
entrepreneur networks & associations, based on the

Istanbul indicators for womens entrepreneurship
adopted by all SBA coordinators in June 2010.
At a workshop held in Zagreb in October 2011, SBA
coordinators and representatives of womens entrepreneurship associations analysed and presented
national policies and developments regarding WE
in their countries. These conclusions were further
bolstered by the SBA assessment process in which
SEECEL took part. In addition, SEECEL team also
conducted research on the existence of women entrepreneurship TNA-related activities in the nine SEECEL
WE member states.
The conclusions of the SEECEL research and of
the SBA national coordinators and representatives of
womens entrepreneurship associations were:
there is no systematic approach to a training
needs analysis for women entrepreneurs in any of
the nine SEECEL WE member states;
there is a variety of training provisions in the
SEECEL WE member states, but they are ad-hoc
activities that are not based on a systematic analysis of training needs (mostly donor driven).
11
the training available in the SEECEL WE member

states for women entrepreneurs most likely does
not match their specific needs.
there is a clear need for the development of a
Women Entrepreneurs Training Needs Analysis
System (WETNAS) to achieve greater system efficiency, eliminate unnecessary costs and support
women entrepreneurs with adequate training that
will increase the rate of women start-ups and contribute to a competitive and sustainable economy.
Training is a crucial element in fostering the competitiveness in the economy as a whole in which women
entrepreneurship has a huge, untouched potential.
It is also an instrument that helps companies to develop and grow. Education and training are not only
about raising skill levels, but they also result in confidence building and changing womens perceptions of
themselves. Their self-perceptions are key, given that
in many societies women are going against the tide
of cultural values and attitudes to become entrepreneurs. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Womens
Report, 2012).
A systematic analysis of training needs is necessary
in order to design training so that it can be tailored to
the specific needs of existing enterprises. This eliminates providing too much training and increases training that is lacking - which results in greater system
efficiency.
All these recommendations from the initial phase
have led to starting WETNAS as a separate component within the project, Women Entrepreneurship A
Job Creation Engine for South East Europe, which held
12
its first meeting in September 2012 in Zagreb. A working group composed of nine people from SEECEL WE
members was established Mr Edmond Sheshi, Albania; Ms Jelena Ivoevi, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ms
Vesna tefica, Croatia; Mr Gazmend Mejzini, Kosovo*;
Ms Gabriela Kostovska Bogoeska, Macedonia**; Ms
Lucia Usurelu, Moldova; Ms Ana ebek, Montenegro;
Ms Duica Semenenko, Serbia; Ms Nezahat Yilmaz,
Turkey and the group facilitator, Mr Igor Nikoloski.
Based on the previous SEECEL TNA methodology,
best practices from the EU, and the recommendations and conclusions from the inception phase of the
Women Entrepreneurship A Job Creation Engine
for South East Europe project, the working group developed a WETNAS instrument that was strategically
piloted in nine countries. The pilot institutions were:
Albania - the National Professional Businesswomen
and Crafts Association; Bosnia and Herzegovina - the
Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Srpska; Croatia - the Chamber of Economy; Kosovo* - the Womens Business Association SHERA; Macedonia** - the
Business Confederation; Moldova - the Centre for the
Advancement of Women in Business; Montenegro the Directorate for Development of SMEs; Serbia - the
Association of Business Women; Turkey - the Union
of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey
(TOBB). The main difference between the ad-hoc
analysis of training needs of women entrepreneurs
implemented in some countries, mainly financed by
bilateral donor programs/projects, and the Women
Entrepreneurs Training Needs Analysis System (WETNAS) is the systematic data collection in the latter approach. This system uses the same methodology that
is applicable in the nine SEECEL WE member states The raw data received from the questionnaire was
and it will be performed at specified time intervals, analysed. The survey results were also communicated
rather than as ad-hoc initiative at particular period of and disseminated to national organisations for further
time. The WETNAS instrument is composed of a spe- examination and processing. This analysis provides an
cially defined methodology and questionnaire that is overview of the current situation regarding the trainavailable on-line in the nine SEECEL WE member ing and skills development, and it shows the level of
states.
awareness of women entrepreneurs in the nine SEEThe WETNAS instrument was presented at WET- CEL countries. The analysis represents the basis for
NAS working group meeting in Skopje on November planning future WE activities (from October 2013 to
2012 and finalised in January 2013, when the on-line June 2015) that should focus on defining the Train of
survey was launched. This on-line platform was devel- Trainers modules3 and defining the good practice crioped in coordination with the working group mem- teria for each country4.
bers and the SEECEL team. Attention was given to the
use of understandable languages to enable the most
valid, reliable and comparable measurements. This
platform represents the basis for implementation of
future WETNAS-related activities.
During the surveys implementation, each working
group member, in cooperation with womens business
support organisations in their respective countries,
promoted and supervised the implementation of the
survey process. The response rate of each country,
except for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro,
achieved the predetermined minimum number of
completed questionnaires. At the end of the survey,
in May 2013, 18562 of the completed questionnaires
were uploaded into the on-line data base.
3 Based on WETNAS results training module packages for the
3 most required areas of training developed and lead trainers from each national WE most representative association
trained
2 Number of enterprises participating in the survey per coun-
4 Good practices per country which meet the criteria broadly
try: ALB - 201, BIH- 136, HRV - 282, KOS* 202, MKD** 209,
internationally promoted and also available for peer learning
MDA 206, MNE 182, SRB 203 and TUR - 235
(tool) for WE CoP members and beyond
Acknowledgements
13
Content
Organisational Profile
Foreword
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
10
Executive Summary
11
1. Development Context
15
4. Conclusions &
Recommendations 68
20
5.1. Index of Tables

5.2. Index of Figures
5.3. References
1.1. Introduction
1.2. State of Play
2. Methodology: Theory
And Practice
2.2. Methodological Framework

2.2. Objectives
2.3. Methodological Approach
2.4. Sampling
2.5. Instrument
14
16
18
21
22
23
24
26
3. Findings
3.1. Data Collection Instruments

and Procedures
3.2. General and Enterprise Information
3.3. Networking
3.4. Enterprise Information
3.5. Access to Finance
3.6. Human Resources and Training

27
29
30
36
39
42
51
5. Indexes & references
73
6. Annexes:
76
74
74
75
6.1. Annex 1: WETNAS Pilot Institutions

77
6.2. Annex 2: NACE Sectors
78
6.3. Annex 3: Owners Age and NACE Sectors 80
1.1.
Introduction
The project, Womens Entrepreneurship A Job Creation Engine for South East Europe, is focused on actions to harmonize womens entrepreneurship policies
in accordance with the principles of the Small Business Act for Europe, to enhance the capacities of the
networks and associations of women entrepreneurs,
and to promote a systematic policy dialogue among all
stakeholders.
The focus for the project is set within the context
of the Small Business Act (SBA) process, specifically
Principle 1: Entrepreneurial Learning and Womens
Entrepreneurship, and Principle 8: Enterprise Skills
and Innovation.
Development of the SME sector is the backbone of
every economy. In the EU, this sector represents more
than 99% of all enterprises in the economy5. The European Commission recognises that entrepreneurship and
small businesses are a key source of jobs and business
dynamics and innovation. Promoting entrepreneurship
is a clear objective for achieving the Lisbon goals. Europe is not fully exploiting its entrepreneurial potential,
and womens entrepreneurship is one area of untapped
potential. In terms of policy recommendations, stakeholders underline the importance of better data on
which to base policies, as well as the reinforcement of
support structures for female entrepreneurs such as
the provision of information and training, business networks, business support services, and facilitating access
to both human and financial capital for women. 6.
A recent study published by the Maastricht School
of Management (Vossenberg, 2013) states that the
growth of the proportion of women entrepreneurs
in the last decade, especially in developing countries,
has drawn the attention of different groups of stakeholders. Policies and programs such as: programs for
capacity-building of entrepreneurial skills, strenghtening womens networks, providing finance and training, designing policies that enable more and stronger
5 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-
6 http://libraryeuroparl.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/womens-
analysis/
16
entrepreneurship-in-the-eu/
start-ups and business growth have been initiated This group of soft obstacles plays an important role
to promote and develop womens entrepreneurship. in explaining the inability of women to foster and
Some even argue that the contribution of women expand businesses. According to the EU SBA for Euentrepreneurs tends to be higher than that resulting rope8, this skills mismatch will remain very high on
from the entrepreneurial activity of men.
the EU agenda, which was confirmed by the EU 2020
Across the majority of OECD countries the share Strategy documents. The renewed emphasis of Euroof women-owned individual enterprises does not ex- pean Commission policies for a more entrepreneurial
ceed 30%. Spain and Sweden have the highest share Europe and for women entrepreneurship as a priority
of women-owned individual firms among European pillar within the SBA requires a concerted commitcountries based on available data (Piacetini, 2013).
ment by all pre-accession countries to set forth and
A study by the European Commission in 2008 on ensure improvements in womens employment and
women innovators and entrepreneurship7 identified participation in the economy by guaranteeing policy
three types of obstacles to innovative entrepreneur- alignment, monitoring systems and support frameworks for womens entrepreneurship.
ship for women:
Due to the non-existence of a common understanding of who is considered a woman entrepre1. Contextual obstacles: educational choices, tradineur there is a strong need for establishing a unified
tional views and stereotypes about women, sciand clear definition. For this purpose, SEECEL WE
ence and innovation;
countries have defined woman entepreneur as the
2. Economic obstacles: innovation sector requiring
one owning 51% of SMEs.
substantial investment with women perceived as

financially less credible than men;
3. Soft obstacles: lack of access to technical, scientific and general business networks; and a lack of
business training, role models and entrepreneurship skills.
7 European Commission, DG ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTRY:

25, July 2008 EVALUATION ON POLICY: PROMOTION OF
8 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.
do?uri=COM:2008:0394:FIN:EN:PDF
WOMEN INNOVATORS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP http://

ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/promoting-entrepreneurship/women/
Development Context
17
1.2.
State of Play
In the SEECEL WE countries entrepreneurship is also

recognised as the broad-based driver of economic
growth. There is also a demonstrated need to support
the policy process in recognising womens entrepreneurship as one of core drivers for increased competitiveness and economic development.
All SEECEL WE countries, except Moldova, regularly report to the EC on the policy indicators for womens
entrepreneurship. The key findings of the SME Policy
Index 20129 regarding womens entrepreneurship are:
Overall, the results from the assessment on womens
entrepreneurship show that the training provision is
underdeveloped across the region, while particular
efforts will be required to improve womens access
to finance. Policy support for womens entrepreneurship has been helped by targeted efforts to improve
the position of women in society (political, social, and
economic), which provide a good basis for more fo-
cused development of the womens entrepreneurship

agenda. Networking, particularly in terms of its contribution to advocacy and policy, varies considerably
across the pre-accession region. Each economy needs
to improve policy support for womens entrepreneurship to ensure women can contribute to the wider
competitiveness drive.
A number of areas have been proposed to bring
forward developments in womens entrepreneurship.
All economies should work towards adopting a
competitiveness paradigm that makes womens entrepreneurship a central pillar in each economys economic development strategy. This should be accompanied by a programme or action plan with dedicated
resources for technical support, training, measures to
improve access to finance, and include targets and an
effective monitoring framework.10
Despite the fact that there has been some progress in
9 OECD, et al. (2012) SME policy Index: Western Balkan and Tur-
10 OECD, et al. (2012) SME policy Index: Western Balkan and Tur-
key 2012: Progress in implementation of the Small Business

Act for Europe, OECD Publishing.
18
key 2012: Progress in implementation of the Small Business

Act for Europe, OECD Publishing.
the area of womens entrepreneurship in SEECEL WE

countries, there has been no systematic follow-up of
womens entrepreneurship training needs, either as
a part of general national TNA or a specific national
WETNA for SMEs.
In view of the above, the SEECEL WE countries have

decided to cooperate in this project on WETNA system development in order to improve national development (Table 1).
Table 1: Key Facts for WETNAS
GDP per capita (US $)

GDP per capita PPS12
11
alb
4149
31e
bih
4447
29
hrv
13227
61
kos*
3453
N/A
mkd**
4568
36
mda
2038
N/A
mne
6813
43
srb
5190
35
tur
10666
52
99.9
95.7
3.5
0.7
71
73
27
99.1
75.5
17.8
5.8
N/A
N/A
N/A14
99.6
76.2
12.1
1.3
67.5
45
N/A
99
98.37
1.35
0.22
62.24
43.3
12.44
99.3
82.9
6.1
1.6
52.5
60
32.43
97.7
71.5
22.1
5.4
58.8
36,8
27.5
99.5
87.36
9.83
2.8
66.3
N/A
9.7
99.4
85.4
11.1
2.7
59.4
N/A
25.8
99.92
95.54
4.03
0.35
78
55
N/A
13
% of SME
% of micro
% of small
% of medium
% of SME-employed population
% of GDP SMEs contribute
% WE in SMEs
11 GDP per capita in US dollars for 2012. GDP per capita is gross domestic product divided by midyear population. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD, date: 20/12/2013 GDP per capita
12 GDP per capita PPS for 2012. The volume index of GDP per capita in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) is expressed in relation to
the European Union (EU28) average set to equal 100. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&la
nguage=en&pcode=tec00114, date: 20/12/2013 GDP per capita PPS
13 Information is gathered from National Sources of SEECEL WE member states
14 Republic of Srpska - 27,92 %
Development Context
19
2.1.
Methodological framework
SEECEL uses the Open Method of Coordination

(OMC) and Evidence Based Policy Making (EBPM) as
its fundamental methodology. Under the OMC, members learn from each other by sharing information
and comparing initiatives. This enables them to adopt
best practices and coordinate their national policies.
On the other hand, EBPM is based on the premise that
policy decisions would be better informed by available
evidence and should include rational analysis because
policy based on systematic evidence produces better
outcomes (Overseas Development Institute, 2005).
No ones talents should be wasted in the quest for
high performance. Thus, training is an essential feature to turn knowledge into effective and efficient operations, sustaining security and career progression
in a climate conducive for success (OReagan, Stainer
and Sims, 2010). Women capable of starting growth
companies can be considered the most under-utilized
resource. Entrepreneurship literature agrees that
women are an unrecognised potential and a niche for
the development of national competitiveness.
SEECELs definition of Training Needs Analysis
(TNA) from 2012 was adopted in the development of
the Women Entrepreneurs Training Needs Analysis
Methodology: Theory and Practice
(WETNA) methodology. TNA is a process that identifies the training needs of SMEs (from individual to
organisational level) in order to help SMEs to perform
effectively and compete in the market.
WETNA serves sustainable policy making with the
delivery of significant information as the basis for efficient planning of training, and the identification of
shortages in skills, knowledge and abilities. Moreover, it
reveals present practices in the field of training from a
substantive, organisational and financial point of view.
21
2.2.
Objectives
SEECEL has established the Women Entrepreneurs

Training Needs Analysis Working Group (WETNA WG),
which is comprised of a representative from each of the
most representative business associations focused on
women entrepreneurs from SEECEL WE countries.
The objectives of SEECEL WETNA are to develop a
comprehensive WETNA instrument to identify the relevant training needs of women entrepreneurs in SEECEL
WE countries and to conclude whether WETNA should
be implemented independently or as a part of a broader
TNA. It should be noted that this research is first of its
kind; no similar research for this number of countries
has been found in the existing literature.
WETNA results should support Evidence Based
Policy Making principle, so policy makers can make
22
their decisions in a way that increases the efficency of

the public money that is spent. OMC has an interesting
characteristic by raising the possibility of participants
learning from each other. Therefore WETNA should
enable capacity building for the most representative
business associations in their collaboration with policy makers. In order for SEECEL WE countries to assist
each other in the process, to exchange knowledge and
to further improve themselves through their experience OMC infuses peer learning. A triangle consisting
of women entrepreneurs, policy makers and business
associations should be introduced and it should be
actively engaged, in carrying out a specific know-how,
experience and expertise.
2.3.
Methodological Approach
Based on the previous successful SEECEL experience

in the implementation of the regional TNA, two approaches were used for the work of WETNA WG in
vivo and the SEECEL Community of Practice (CoP). A
WETNA WG in vivo meeting was held in Skopje, Macedonia**, while the rest of the process was facilitated
through the use of the CoP, an online, cost-efficient
tool that provided geographically distant experts the
opportunity for continuous discussion. SEECEL WG
members committed themselves to participate frequently enough to produce the final results.
The WETNA process had three main phases:
1. Development of the instrument
2. Implementation of the instrument
3. Analysis of the results

Development of the instrument At the in vivo
meeting in Skopje, the members started to develop
the Questionnaire for Conducting a Regional Training
Needs Analysis for Women Entrepreneurship in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo*, Macedonia**, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
During this meeting, WG members were trained in the
use of CoP. Afterwards they continued to filter, adjust
and prepare the instrument until it was finalised. In

addition to the substantive part of the questionnaire,
the features of the online system for data collection
were established with peer support through the CoP.
Implementation of the instrument For this phase
the online system for data collection was developed
and introduced. The instrument was translated into
local languages and then implemented by the most
representative business association from each SEECEL WE country (Annex 1). These associations also
carried out public awareness campaigns before the
implementation of the instrument. The first step for
each of the business associations, however, was to
test the validity and functionality of the data collection system. Once the system was given a green light,
women entrepreneurs had to access the web platform
in order to take part in WETNA.
Analysis of the results After the data for the regional
WETNA was gathered, the analysis itself was carried
out. When regional WETNA was made, however, data
for an individual SEECEL WE country was also given to
each member states so they could make an in-depth,
tailor-made analysis based on their specific needs.
23
2.4.
Sampling
The existing literature showed no broadly agreed

upon definition of a woman entrepreneur. Therefore,
SEECEL is using a definition of women entrepreneurs
as those women who have at least a 51% ownership
share in a company. The EU SME definition was used
as a basis for the criteria in the SMEs. Keeping in mind
their economic development, the SEECEL WE member states harmonized their SMEs with the EU SME
definition on number of employees within an enterprise. According to this definition, micro enterprises
employ up to 10 employees, small enterprises have
up to 50 employees, and medium ones up to 250 employees. The majority of businesses fail within the first
three years. Once enterprises manage to survive for 3
years, it is very likely that they will continue to operate on the market in the future. For this reason, the
training that an enterprise needs during the start-up
and survival phase differs from the needs that come
afterwards. It is desirable to learn from those enterprises that were established in 2009, at the latest
(meaning they operated during economic crisis), in order to transfer their tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. Different countries, based on their geopolitical
surroundings, have priorities in different sectors. For
24
example, in Croatia one of the main sectors would be

tourism, in Kosovo* this might be trade, while in Turkey
it might be manufacturing. Since, this project is implemented in nine countries, it was difficult to define one
unique pattern in defining the priority sector and for
this reason all sectors of the NACE Version 2 (Annex
2) classification were included. It was agreed that a
representative sample should be 200 companies per
SEECEL WE member state.
The following criteria were adopted by the WG members as relevant for the selection and implementation
of the WETNA Questionnaire:
Any NACE sector

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises
Privately owned company
Owned (with a share of at least 51%)
Exists on the market and has had continuous business activities for at least 3 years

In order to make information such as that on Women
Entrepreneurs Training Needs Analysis available in a
highly dynamic and turbulent environment in which
businesses are increasingly affected by the actions

of international competitors as a result of the globalization process, a final S for System should be
introduced in the WETNA acronym. WETNAS, or the
Women Entrepreneur Training Needs Analysis System should be conducted on frequent basis so that
policy makers can make their decisions in a way which
to increase the efficency of public money that is spent.
This means that further work and cooperation should
achieve a transformation from individual problemsolving to a systematic solution.
25
2.5.
Instrument
An instrument was developed to identify the training E. Human resources and training, which is the main
part of the survey, collecting data regarding the
needs of women entrepreneurs in SEECEL WE counactivities carried out, plans and a budget for traintries: the Questionnaire for Conducting the Regional
ing, education and skills development for both
Training Needs Analysis for Women Entrepreneurship
managerial and non-managerial staff.
in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo*,
Macedonia**, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey (Annex 3). It was broad and complex to allow for The instrument was piloted through the web platform,
in-depth analysis. Concretely, it consists of 37 items in other words through the online system for data collection, using asp.net programme language and Windivided into five chapters:
dows hosting technology. The on-line questionnaire
automatically sent all data to a joint database, so data
A. General information, providing information about
collected can be comparable. To respect the privacy of
an enterprises sector of operation and its backthe companies involved, a coding system and individground and experience;
ual data protection were used. Analysis of the results
B. Networking and business partnership, gathering
information regarding the networking and cooper- can be found in the chapter entitle Findings.
ation and collaboration activities and possibilities;
C. Enterprise information, collecting data about business performance, demographic structure and
market success;
D. Access to finance, which gathers information on
the perception of the availability and usage of the
basic and the alternative financial instruments,
and the sources of information; and
26
The findings and analysis presented in this chapter

are based on the data gathered during the survey conducted between February and May 2013. The survey
was carried out using the SEECEL on-line data collection tool specifically developed for the WETNAS
component within the Women Entrepreneurship A Job
Creation Engine for South East Europe.
28
3.1.
Data collection instruments and procedures
The Questionnaire for Conducting the Regional Training Needs Analysis for Women Entrepreneurs used in
the study consisted of five parts: (1) General information; (2) Information on networking and business
partnership; (3) Enterprise information; (4) Access
to finance; and (5) Human resources and training
information.
Prior to its dissemination, the questionnaire was
translated into local languages, supported by WG
members and organisations. The on-line survey was
limited by 1000 unique survey codes that were disseminated among SMEs in nine SEECEL WE countries.
As can be seen in Table 2, a total of 1856 completed
surveys were used in this data analysis.
In designing the study, we planned to collect 200
questionnaires from each of the participating countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro faced
reasonable difficulties in achieving this goal. Nevertheless, when taking into consideration the population size
of these two countries, the sample can be considered
as a representative one. Descriptive statistics (measures of central tendency, measures of dispersions, etc.)
and inferential statistics (analysis of variance) are used
to describe the basic features of the data.
Findings
Table 2: Completed questionnaires by country
country
Albania
Croatia
Kosovo*
Macedonia**
Moldova
Montenegro
Serbia
Turkey
Total
number of SMEs
201
136
282
202
209
206
182
203
235
1,856
29
3.2.
General and enterprise information
This section provides general information about the

participating SMEs (dispersion by country and age)
and some basic information concerning owners and
employees.
Figure 1: Sample dispersion by country and size of women-owned

SMEs
medium
small
micro
MNE
SRB
tur
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
30
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
mkd**
MDA
In Figure 1, micro enterprises are prevalent in all

participating countries. The highest share of micro
enterprises is present in Kosovo* (97.5%), Montenegro
(89%) and Croatia (86.5%). While the largest number
of small enterprises are present in Albania (40.3%),
Moldova (37.9%) and Turkey (36.2%).
Turkey (13.6%) again, with Serbia (10.3%) and Albania (9.5%) has the highest sample share in mediumsized enterprises. On the other hand, the sample of
small enterprises is the lowest in Kosovo* (2.5%), Montenegro (10.4%) and Croatia (11.7%). The lowest proportion of medium-sized enterprises in the sample
are found in Kosovo* (0%), Montenegro (0.5%), Croatia
(1.8%) and Macedonia** (1.9%).
Due to the small number of the medium-sized
enterprises in the overall sample, further statistical
analysis per country according to SME size could be
subject to national analysis, which might be of interest
to national stakeholders.
Analysing the sample by NACE Sector Version 2
(Annex 2), it is evident that women entrepreneurs
from the sample are present mostly in wholesale
and retail trade and in the repair of motor vehicles
Findings
and motorcycles sector (16.2% of the total number of

SMEs), followed by professional, scientific, technical
and support service activities sector (14.6%) and the
manufacturing sector (11%). These three sectors jointly represent 41.8% of the total sample, concretely 776
enterprises in SEECEL WE countries. Women entrepreneurs from the sample are less active in the utilityrelated sectors (gas, electricity, steam and water supply and waste management). Observed and analysed
micro enterprises are mainly active in wholesale and
retail trade; the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector (12.6%, or (18% of total micro enterprises
in the sample), professional, scientific, technical and
support service activities sector and (12.4%, or 18%)
and arts, entertainment and recreation (5.5%, or 8%).
WE in Albania are of the special interest for further
analysis because Albania has the largest number of
women owners in the sample for holding postgraduate diplomas. In Albania, the most frequent sectors
among WE are manufacturing (13.9%), professional,
scientific, technical and support service activities
sector and (11.4%), accommodation and food service
activities (10%), and the health sector (9.5%).
31
Figure 2: Demographic structure of WE sample by country
60+
50-59
40-49
30-39
up to 29
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
As presented in Figure 2, a low presence of young

women entrepreneurs (up to the age of 29) in the
sample is obvious for all countries. However, Kosovo*
has the highest share (18.3%) of young women entrepreneurs in the sample. On the other hand, Montenegro has no young women entrepreneurs in the sample. It is obvious from Figure 2 that the most frequent
group in the sample are women from the ages of 4049, followed by women from the ages of 30-39 years
old who are owners of SMEs. A small percentage of
women-owners over the age of 60 is detectable in all
countries. The majority of WE in the sample (71.9%)
32
fall within two categories, 30-39 and 40-49 years old,

or in absolute number - 1,335 women entrepreneurs.
Women entrepreneurs in the category of 55 years of
age and above are operating in the manufacturing
sector (17%), sale and trade (14%), professional, scientific, technical and support service activities (11%) and
health (11%). On the other hand, young women entrepreneurs aged 29 and below are operating in sales
and trade (22%), professional, scientific, technical
and support service activities (15%), arts, entertainment and recreation (13%) and the manufacturing
sector (12%).
Figure 3: Educational structure of WE sample by country
master or phd
bachelor
secondary edu.
primary edu.
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
Figure 3 shows the educational background of the

SME owners by country. In all countries, apart from
Kosovo* and Albania, women entrepreneurs mostly
have a Bachelors degree. The complete sample is
composed of 72.2% of women entrepreneurs holding
a Bachelor, Master or PhD degree.
Interestingly, Albanias sample has no women
entrepreneurs who have not finished primary educa-
Findings
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
tion and Albanias sample contains the most women

entrepreneurs with a Master or PhD degree (60.7%),
which is consistent with the data presented in Figure
2. Kosovo* has the highest share of women entrepreneurs in the sample with secondary education as their
highest educational accomplishment (59%) but also
5.2% of WE in Kosovo* finished primary education as
their highest educational achievement.
33
Figure 4: Level of education and reason for getting into business

activities
100
90
80
The data indicates that almost 33% of women entrepreneurs get into business to be independent and
27% do so to take advantage of a business opportunity.
As Figure 4 shows, there are considerable differences
between women entrepreneurs holding different levels of education compared to their reason for getting
into business. Nevertheless, at the p<0.05 level these
differences are not statistically significant [F(3, 1854)=
2.561, p=0.053].
70
Figure 5: Educational structure of employees

60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
university
master or
phd
holders
university
batchelor
holders
secondary
education
primary
school
Take advantage of business opportunity

No better choices for work
Employed but not satisfied with current position
secondary edu.
bachelor
Inherited a business
primary edu.
master or phd
To be independent
34
no schooling or unfinished primary edu.
Figure 5 is an overview which shows that 46.3% of

employees working at the women-owned businesses
have finished secondary education, 33.2% have obtained a Bachelors degree, 7.2% have a Masters degree or a PhD, and 12.5% have only primary school diploma. Only 0.8% of the employees has no schooling
or has not finished primary education.
Additional analysis shows that the size of a company

is related to the educational level of its employees.
Figure 6 shows that larger companies tend to have a
greater the percentage of less educated employees.
Furthermore, the highest percentage of employees
with a Masters degree or a PhD is found in small/
medium-size companies.
Figure 6: Company size and employees educational level
Figure 7: Structure of employees by age and gender
100-250
50-99
10-49
1-9
women
men
100
2500
90
2000
80
1500
70
1000
60
500
50
40
Figure 7 depicts the structure of employees by age and

gender. It should be noted that women entrepreneurs
from the sample hire women and men at the ratio of
60:40. If we analyse only the group 30-39 year old employees, the ratio of women to men is 61:39. The same
age category encompasses 33.6% of all employees in
the sample. We might conclude that women entrepreneurs from the sample tend to have more women
employees in all age categories, with exception of the
employees that are older than 60.
30
20
10
0%
No
schooling
or
unfinished
primary
education
Findings
Primary
school
Secondary
education
Bachelor
Diploma
Master
or PhD
Diploma
up to 29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60+
35
3.3.
Networking
This section focuses on ways of cooperation and the

most common ways of networking and promoting
businesses. Furthermore, it presents the level of participation of entrepreneurs in international initiatives
is presented and their level of awareness about supporting other start-up business compared to businesses that do not participate in international activities.
Figure 8: Distribution of networking methods used by SME size
micro
small
medium
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
36
Business Association
Business forums
direct contact
Recommendations
Media search
WE Business
Associations
Despite the great efforts of the business support insti- only 37% of respondents used this method micro
tutions and economic organisations to foster network- enterprises in 33.4% of cases, small enterprises in
ing and collaboration throughout the various types of 44.5% of cases and medium-size enterprises in 50% of
activities, the most commonly used tool for network- cases. Analysis of variance indicate that at the p<0.05
ing remains direct contacts between the entrepre- level there are significant statistical differences in the
neurs themselves. As shown in Figure 8, medium-size distribution of networking methods used according to
enterprises used this method in 84.3% of cases, micro SME size [F (2, 1855) = 39.694, p=0.000].
enterprises in 81.1% of cases and small enterprises in
59.2% of cases. Media search is the least used tool/ Figure 9: Preferred networking tools by SME size for the future
instrument for networking. The results showed that use
micro
small
medium
800
700
600
400
300
200
100
Business Association
Findings
Business forums
direct contact
Recommendations
Media search
WE Business
Associations
37
Figure 9 presents the results on preferred tool for creation of networking and collaboration by SME size in
the future. The results indicate that the most popular
tool used by WE Business Associations. 68.8% of the
SMEs that participated in this research are ready to
accept this method for their future networking. While
direct contacts are the most common method used
at the moment, they are recognised as a desirable
tool for the future in only 32.7% of cases. Analysis of
variance indicate that at the p<0.05 level there are no
significant statistical differences between preferred
distribution methods of networking for future use according to SME size [F (2, 1855) = 1.951, p=0.142].
Figure 10: Correlation between participation in International
Women Initiatives and interest towards mentoring
yes, free of charge
Figure 10 shows that women entrepreneurs who have

been involved in international womens initiatives
have demonstrated a significantly higher interest in
mentoring other women in entrepreneurial activities.
Participation in these initiatives helped them to raise
their awareness of the importance of the mentoring
process. On the other hand, this group of entrepreneurs would be more willing to mentor a start-up
company if this service was paid for compared to
those who were not involved in such initiatives.
The highest interest in mentoring women start-up
entrepreneurs (free of charge) was shown by women
entrepreneurs in Serbia (28%), Kosovo* (23%) and
Turkey (19%). Women entrepreneurs from Croatia and
Macedonia** did not show any interest in mentoring
start-ups free of charge. The interest for mentoring
start-ups for a certain fee is much higher in all of the
countries, led by entrepreneurs from Albania (56%),
Kosovo* (53%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (46%).
Montenegro is the only country in the region in which
two-thirds of entrepreneurs (65%) would not be interested in mentoring the start-ups of young women
entrepreneurs for a certain fee.
0
10
20
no
30
40
yes if paid
Not part of International
Women Initiatives
Part of International
Women Initiatives
50
38
3.4.
Enterprise information
This section provides specific information about company performance, its size, number of employees
and their educational backgrounds. It also makes
correlations between the number of employees and
company size. Additional investigations were made to
determine the factors that might influence business
performance.
Figure 11: Perception of the current business performance per
country
Figure 11 presents information on the percpetion of

current business performace by country. Almost twothirds of women-owned companies stated that they
currently have good business performance, and only
one-third stated that they are in the process of phasing
out and closing their activities. Considering this data, it
can be confirmed that SMEs managed by women are
excelent
barely surviving
not so good
good
phasing out
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
Findings
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
39
and there is a room for further improvement of the

business environment and the economy to satisfy
their expectations. The largest number of the compaines with excellent performance is in Turkey.
performing very well in this time of global economic crisis and they should be promoted as best examples. This
studys findings suggest that the number of companies
in Kosovo*, Macedonia**, Montenegro and Albania that
are in a phasing out stage is very small.
On the other hand, Moldova and Montenegro have
small portion of companies that are performing well.
This shows that women entrepreneurs in these countries are not satisfied with their business performance
Figure 12: Business impact areas
not important
less important
important
very important
Technological changes
Innovative product/service development
Change in production or market needs
Decrease in production/service request
Increase of production costs
Poor or no marketing
Change in marketing methodology
Access to finance and capital
Need to improve quality
Increase of customer/consumer complaints
Government regulations changes
Increase of competition
Meeting international standards
Attitudes and working behaviour of employees
shortage of skilled work force competent and
experienced employees
Increase of industrial accidents
Administrative problems
Adaptation to environmental factors
Change of top management
0
40
20
40
60
80
100
As presented in Figure 12, the women entrepreneurs

have stressed that an increase of competition, the
need of improvement of quality, the attitudes and
working behaviour of the employees and the access
to finance and capital are one of the most important
areas with the strongest impact on the enterprise
functioning. On the other hand, they have stated
that the change of top management, adaptation to
environmental factors, the increase of industrial accidents and the technological changes have the least
impact on the business performance when compared
to other factors/areas.
Findings
41
3.5.
Access to finance
This section provides an overview of the availability

and providers of loans and grants to SMEs for each
participating country. It also elaborates on the level of
awareness, willingness and the absorption capacities
of women entrepreneurs to use these financial services as well as their actual use.
Figure 13: Perceived availability of loans
international & eu
national
private investment
ngo
none
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
42
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
The perception of the availability of loans among

women entrepreneurs in the participating countries
is high, which confirms that most of the companies
are aware of the possibilities for credit financing opportunities offered by different providers. As shown in
Figure 13, the situation in regard to loan recognition
differs in Macedonia** and Montenegro, where only
60% of women-owned enterprises are aware of potential financing solutions.
Figure 14: Perceived availability of grants
international & eu
national
private investment
ngo
none
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
Findings
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
43
Unlike the perception of loans, the general awareness

of the availability of grants in region is much lower.
Figure 14 shows that companies in Croatia and Turkey
seem to have better overview of the situation (90%)
than the other countries in the region. The most favourable situation in regard to the perception of grant
availability is in companies in Montenegro and Macedonia**. It seems that the financial sector in Turkey
and Croatia is more developed than in other countries.
However, any speculation about the reasons for these
differences is beyond the scope of this research study.
Figure 15: Use of loans per country
international & eu
national
ngo
private
investment
none
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
44
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
Although the perception of the availability of loans

is sufficient in most of the countries, the use of loans
is still relatively low, especially in Montenegro where
only 2% of companies are using them (Figure 15). This
information might be considered as showing that
there is a need to extend additional funding for the
private sector with new services, or that the loan conditions are in favour to support the SME sector. On the
other hand, the situation in Albania is quite opposite,
as almost two-thirds of women entrepreneurs are
financing their business activities through the use of
loans. The regional average shows that 20-40% of the

companies owned by women use loans to fund their
activities. This shows that, in general, loan providers
(banks, NGOs, other financial institutions) are offer
favourable loan terms.
Figure 16: Use of grants per country
international & eu
national
ngo
private
investment
none
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
Findings
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
45
Figure 16 presents grants usage. It is apparent that the

use of loans is higher than the use grants. Similar to
the situation with loans, women entrepreneurs from
Montenegro use only 17% of the grants provided in the
country. This confirms that either there are not many
grant providers in Montenegro, or women entrepreneurs are not aware of them. The most favourable
situation in regard to grant usage is in Albania, where
almost 70% of companies are using grants. Most grant
providers in Albania have a private source, this might
Perceived loans availability
be considered as money provided by the family. Grant

providers differ from country to country. For example,
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Turkey most
grants come from national funds, while in Albania,
Kosovo* and Moldova they come by way of private investments.
Figure 17: Overview of the perception of availability and usage of
grants and loans
loans usage
International & EU
Perceived grants availability
Grants usage
none
national
0
200
400
600
800
private
investment
46
1000
ngo
1200
Figure 17 presents the overall regional awareness

and actual usage of loans and grants by women entrepreneurs. As it was noted previously, most of the
surveyed companies have stated that they do not use
grants. The perception of the availability of grants
shows that there is a need for an additional awareness
raising campaign and/or provision of additional grant
schemes. Most of the grants used have been awarded
by national funds and, as second choice, private
funds. This shows the awareness of the private sec-
tor in supporting the national economy and its SMEs

by providing non-refundable financial resources. The
most commonly used source for loans are private investments (mainly banks) followed by national funds,
and NGOs. The credit lines of the EU and other international donors are very rarely used.
Figure 18: Information on access to finance per country
yes
no
partly
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
Findings
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
47
Figure 18 shows that the women entrepreneurs in the

region agree that there is insufficient information on
access to finance. This situation needs to be improved.
Although entrepreneurs from Montenegro showed
themselves to be the lowest users of financial instruments, 54% stated that there is sufficient information
regarding access to finance. The situation in Kosovo*
and Macedonia** is different, although they are small
countries. In this case, the size of the country does
not play a role. Instead, the lead role must be the proactiveness of providers, first to offer, and second to
promote and disseminate the information about their
products and services. Entrepreneurs from Moldova
and Bosnia and Herzegovina are the least satisfied
with the information disseminated by financial services providers.
Figure 19: Sources of information on access to finance
media
Business associations & Chambers
Women Business Associations
Newsletter and subscriptions
Financial Institutions dissemination materials
48
Figure 19 presents data on the sources of information

on access to finance. Overall, in all countries, the most
commonly used source for providing this information
is the media (31%), followed by materials disseminated
by financial institutions (22%), business associations
and chambers (18%) newsletters and subscriptions
(15%) and womens business associations (14%).
Figure 20: Use of alternative financial instruments per country

Factoring
Bank guaranties
Leasing
Export insurance
Purchase order financing
Business Angels
Equity financing
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
Findings
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
49
Figure 20 indicates that the most commonly used

alternative financial instruments are bank guarantees
and purchase order financing, followed by leasing.
These findings suggest that the market of alternative
financial instruments has developed in the participating countries.
The frequency of usage of alternative financial instruments is different in each country due to different
legislation, financial market development and business environments. In Albania, Kosovo*, Macedonia**
50
and Turkey, bank guarantees are the most commonly

used alternative financing sources. On the other hand,
in Albania and Moldova, purchase order financing is
the most commonly used alternative financial instrument. Finally, in Serbia and Croatia business angels
are well developed due to awareness raising activities
in the last few years and several projects that were
implemented to promote business angels, so, women
entrepreneurs from these countries prefer this latter
form of alternative financing.
3.6.
Human resources and training
Figure 21: Share of attendance of start-up training by SMEs age

Did not attend start-up training
Attended start-up training
800
700
600
500
demonstrates the results of programs to promote

and support entrepreneurship that were intensively
carried out in these countries in the last few years. It
also shows the awareness raised by policy makers in
these countries by accepting the European Charter for
Small Enterprises (2003) and Small Business Act for
Europe (2008) and adopting more measures for the
promotion of (womens) entrepreneurship.
Figure 22: Share of attendance of start-up training by company size
400
300
no
yes
200
1000
100
0
3 years
4-6 years
7-9 years
> 10 years
Figure 21 shows that there is a negative correlation

between the time of the establishment of companies
and attendance at start-up training. Companies registered 10 or more years ago have participated less
in such trainings (approximately 20%) compared to
those established in the more recent period (up to
three years ago), where almost 33% of them have
participated in some start-up training. This figure
Findings
800
600
400
200
0
micro
small
medium
51
Figure 22 shows the share of attendance in start-up

training by company size. According to the analysis of
variance at the p<0.05 level, there are no statistically
significant difference in attendance of start-up training
in relation to the size of a company [F(2, 1855)=0.118,
p=0.889].
This chart (Fig. 22) provides information about the
perception of training and human resource development (HRD) in general. It gives an overview of a companys awareness in regard to the importance of human
resources, the budget resources that they allocate for
this purpose, the level of satisfaction from participation
in the training, and the types of trainings they prefer.
Figure 23: Method of training organised
An overview on the preferred way training is organised

from country to country (Fig. 23). More than 40% of
the companies in Albania, Moldova and Montenegro,
prefer training to be organised internally by their own
experts. On the other hand, women entrepreneurs
in Macedonia** prefer outsourced services, which
could be linked to the implementation of the voucher
scheme project15 for subsidizing consultancy services.
Under this project, implemented by the Agency for
Promotion of Entrepreneurship, companies can
engage a consultant to deliver training, or to help
them to overcome a concrete issue, for half of the
consultants normal fee, since the other half of the
fee is paid by the state upon successful implementation of the training. This project has been working
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
alb
internally
52
bih
outsourced
hrv
kos*
combined
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
15 http://apprm.gov.mk/voucher.asp
since 2005, so companies are quite aware of it. Finally,

in Turkey, Serbia and Kosovo* the most common use of
training is a combination of internal and outsourced
expertise.
Figure 24: Responsibility for human resources and training activities by SME size
Owner if different from the

director
Director
The responsibility for HRD and training activities can

also be considered by the size of company (Fig. 24).
In more than 50% of small and micro companies the
company director is the person who decides if and
when training should be organised and who should
participate. However, as companies increase in size
there is a specific HR department/person with the
responsibility to plan and coordinate all human resource management activities within the company.
The business and environment culture and the com-
Department or responsible
HR person
No such an assignment
micro
small
medium
0
Findings
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
53
pany structure are the main factors that influence a

companys perception of HRD. Still, when it comes to
who is responsible for HRD and training in the company, the results across the enterprises in these countries follow a similar pattern. On a regional level, the
largest deviation is apparent in Kosovo*, where in half
of the women-owned companies there is no person or
department that is responsible for HRD. These decisions are made on ad-hoc basis, by different types of
management structures. This shows that training is
considered as an important tool to help the companies, but there is no planning process conducted prior
to the delivery of training. These companies are usually not willing to pay for training and they participate in
free HRD programs organised by different stakehold-
ers. In Turkey, the responsibility is equally distributed

between the company director and the owner at the
micro and small companies and between the director, the owner and the HR manager/department in
medium-sized companies.
Figure 25: Reasons for organizing training

not important
less important
important
very important
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
54
To remain
in business
To catch
up
To expand
the business
To increase
the quality
To improve
the image
To learn
To prepare
legal changes new employees
Training can lead to an improvement in many aspects

of business performance. Figure 25 shows that the
most common reasons why training is organised is
to help increase the quality of products and services,
the preparation of new employees in the tasks they
will need to perform, and to improve the image of the
enterprise. This shows that training and education
to increase the skills and knowledge of owners and
employees usually have a wider range of goals and
expected outcomes for the company.
Figure 26: Existence of annually reserved budget for training
investment by country
Figure 26 presents company budget allocations for

training by country. Only 2% of companies from Kosovo* have said that they have reserved a portion of their
annual budget for training. Other countries that also
have small portion of companies (less than 10%) with a
planned budget allocation for training are Montenegro
and Moldova. On the other hand, more than 30% of
women-owned enterprises in Albania and Turkey have
reserved some of their annual budget for HRD. According to an analysis of variance at the p<0.05 level, there
are statistically significant differences in the existence
of an annually reserved budget amount for training investment by country [F(8, 1849)=18,339, p=0.000].
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
Findings
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
55
Figure 27: Prevalence of an annually reserved budget for training
Figure 28: HR investment trend in last three years
by SME size
no
yes
Increased
Remained same
Reduced
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
micro
small
medium
Figure 27 shows the prevalence of an annually reserved budget for investment in training by SME size.
A large majority of WE do not have an annually reserved budget for training. Nevertheless, almost 50%
of medium-size companies have a reserved budget for
training. The analysis of variance at the p<0.05 level
indicate that there is a statistically significant difference in annually reserved budget for training investment by SME size [F(2, 1855)=43,520, p=0.000].
56
As is apparent in Figure 28, more than half of companies (58%) have stated that their investments in HRD
has remained the same in the last three years. Twenty-eight percent of them have confirmed that their
budget has increased, while 14% have made budget
cuts when it comes to HRD. In general, companies in
the region succeeding in keeping the same level of
investments (including for HRD) in the last few years
since they are still struggling with the global economic crisis that has affected the region since 2008.
Figure 29: Sources of funding for HR development
Mostly enterprise itself
Mostly public funds
Mostly employees themselves
International organisations/
projects
Figure 29 shows that the main source of funding for

HRD is secured by the enterprises themselves (69%),
and by the employees own resources (18%). Although,
this information shows that more than two-thirds
of women-owned enterprises still rely on their own
budget for the main source of funding, it is not enough
to confirm that they consider this was an investment
that can bring more efficiency and effectiveness to the
companys future performance, having in mind that
only 15% of all companies have allocated a budget for
HRD. Around two-thirds of the companies that do not
have budget allocation for HRD activities are paying
for HRD activities when needed, while 86% of womenowned enterprises that have a budget allocation are
paying for such activities.
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
Findings
alb
bih
hrv
kos*
mkd**
MDA
MNE
SRB
tur
57
On the regional level, the situation in Kosovo* is quite

different from the other countries. More than 60% of
company employees there are responsible for financing their own training and skills development, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina with almost 40%.
This shows that there are certain obstacles in these
countries to investing in the training of employees.
On the other hand, about 20% of the companies in
Albania, Kosovo* and Macedonia** rely on international
organisations and projects as the main source for
training. In these countries many donor-funded projects are organising the HRD programs for the SMEs.
They are usually delivered for free and companies are
very often using these programs to increase the level
of knowledge and skills of their employees.
Figure 30: Sources of funding for HR development by SME size
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
Figure 30 shows that the size of enterprises has an

impact on the main source of funding for HRD. The
statistical analysis indicates that the differences in
sources of funding for HR development by SME size at
the p<0.05 level are statistically significant [F(2, 1855)=
7.086, p=0.001]. Larger companies have more responsibilities for HRD activities and they represent the main
source of funding (in 88% of all companies). On the
other hand, although in micro companies, again enterprises themselves are the main source of funding (62%),
employees themselves are also financing such activities (19%). The highest portion of companies that have
reserved an annual budget for training is coming from
the mining (30%), utilities (27%) and information and
communication sectors (22%). On the other hand, only
7% of the companies operating in the sales and trade
sector have reserved a budget for training. As expected,
27% of companies that are performing excellently have
reserved a budget for HRD compared to only 6% of the
companies that are barely surviving.
An enterprises focus on HRD is the main factor for
successful development programs, and it leads to improved business performance. Specifically, only 23% of
the companies that do not reserve HRD budget have
increased in their investment in HRD in the last three
years. On the other hand, women- owned companies
that have reserved a budget for training, in the last three
years have increased their budget for HRD by 56%.
30
Mostly enterprise itself
10
0%
58
micro
small
Mostly public funds
Mostly employees themselves
20
International organisations/
projects
medium
Figure 31: Usual means of finding information on available train-
Figure 32: Importance of training topics for owners, managers
ing by SME size
and other employees

1
Business associations and chambers of commerce
13
Media
Mouth to mouth advertisement
12
Other enterprises
Newsletters and subscriptions
11
100
4
0
90
0,2
80
10
70
60
0,6
50
9
8
30
2. Marketing and sales
10
3. Internationalisation
micro
small
medium
As seen in Figure 32, company size does not influence

the means of finding information on available training. The most commonly used source of information
about available training is the media, followed by business associations/chambers of commerce and wordof-mouth advertising.
Findings
1,0
1. Market trends
20
4. Financial management and

accounting
5. Management
6. Product/Service
development
7. Innovation and IPR
8. Information and computer
technology
0,8
40
0%
0,4
7
9. Incentives and new
legislation
10. Quality management and
standards
11. Human resources
12. Strategic planning and
organisation
13. Efficient use of energy
Owners & managers
other employees
59
Figure 32 shows the importance of training topics

for owners, managers and other employees. Women
entrepreneurs and their managers are interested in
training related to product and service development,
management issues, marketing and sales, strategic
planning and organisation, and market trends. On
the other hand, the least interesting topics for these
target groups are internationalization, innovation and
intellectual property rights, and energy efficiency. This
confirms that owners and managers are mainly interested in the general development of the company by
improving strategic and critical thinking and managerial skills to be able to run the company. Specific oriented trainings are not of high interest to management
within a company. On the other hand, employees have
stated that product and service development, market-
ing and sales and market trends are most important

topics for them. Less important topics were: internationalization, financial management and accounting,
management, and training on incentives and new legislation. The comparison between the two categories
within a company (owners and managers in one group
and the employees in another) shows that apart from
human resource training there is a difference in the
importance of training topics between management
and non-management staff. The greatest difference is
in their recognition of the importance of management
and information and computer technology training.
Market trends
Innovation and Intellectual property rights
Marketing and sales
Information and Communication Technology
Internationalisation
Government incentive schemesand new legislation
Financial management and accounting
Quality management and standards
Management
Human resources
Product/Service development
Strategic planning and organisation
Figure 33: Connection between reason for starting a business

and training topics that owners and managers recognised as important
Efficient use of energy
60
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
Take advantage
of business
opportunity
No better choices
for work
Employed but not

satisfied with
current position
Figure 33 shows that there are not major differences

in the way in which owners and managers recognise
what was important in terms of the reason for starting a business. WE that are established by owners who
wanted independence or who inherited a business have
a slightly greater interest in marketing trends and sales
Findings
Inherited a business
to be independent
than other three groups of owners. Owners who are not

satisfied with their current position recognise a need to
improve strategic planning and organisation. Internationalization is a topic of special interest for owners and
managers without better choices for work and those
who are taking advantage of business opportunities.
61
Figure 34: Frequency of engagement with training providers

never
Rarely
Sometimes
Often
Always
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0%
Public/
governmental
agencies
Private
companies
Individual
consultants
Figure 34 depicts the frequency of engagement with

training providers for the WE. As active partners in
the business development process, and also as promoters of different training initiatives, chambers of
commerce were selected as the most commonly used
training provider. Apart from them, other groups of
62
Universities
Secondary
education / VET
providers
Chambers of
commerce
preferred training providers included private companies and individual experts/consultants. Companies
are rarely using training services by (vocational) secondary schools and universities. Women entrepreneurs still do not see formal education institutions as
partners in delivering training services.
Figure 35: Factors determining the selection of HR programs

Not Important
Less important
Important
Very important
Proper timing
The duration of the programme
Location
Applied methodology
Certificate provision
Information on training
Price
Trainers quality / eligibility
Expected benefits of the training
0
As shown in Figure 35, there are several factors that

influence the decision on training. The most common
reason for organizing training and HRD is the expectation of the benefits that the training can provide and
also the trainers quality. Other reasons that influence
the training decision are the price of the training pro-
Findings
20
40
60
80
100
gram and the content of a specific training course. The

least important factors identified by women entrepreneurs were: the granting of certificates, the location of
the training, and the time when the training would be
conducted.
63
Figure 36 shows that the women entrepreneurs prefer

training programs that are organised after work hours
or during weekends. More than 40% of entrepreneurs
have confirmed that working hours are not the suitable for training; only 10% of them identified it as a
preferred option. On the other hand, less than 20% of
entrepreneurs considered that the training programs
organised after work hours are not suitable.
There are no major differences regarding the time
for trainings when it comes to company size, country or
even sector of operation, which shows that this is very
company/department specific issue, which depends
on the organisational culture and its preferences. Furthermore, women entrepreneurs consider the use of a
mix of lectures and an interactive approach as the most
suitable method for conducting training and HRD.
Figure 36: Preferred timing for training delivery
Figure 37 shows that women owners and managers

have rated all of the proposed topics as very important, especially customer-oriented services (93%),
leadership and motivation (90%) and presentation
skills (87%), except the mathematical-numerical skills,
which is rated as least important. On the other hand,
employees in women-owned businesses consider
customer-oriented service to be the most important
for business development. Development skills programs related to EU legislation and directives, mathematical-numerical skills, finance, accounting and
controlling, and organisation and management are
considered the least important topics. Mathematical
and numerical skills have been identified as unimportant by both groups.
Not appropriate
Appropriate
Required
100
80
60
40
20
0%
64
during work hours
after work hours
during weekends
Figure 37: Most important areas for development of owners and managers for owners, managers and employees
1
14
owners & managers
other employees
13
12
0,2
10
0,4
0,6
10
0,8
9
1,0
8
1. Organisation and management
6. National legislation
11. Communication on mother tongue
2. Finance, accounting and controlling
7. EU legislation and directives
12. Communication on foreign language
3. Customers oriented services
8. Information knowledge and skills
13. Information and general culture
4. Leading and motivating
9. Presentational skills
14. Administrative knowledge and skills
5. Conflict and problem solving
10. Mathematical-numerical skills
Findings
65
Figure 38: Most important areas for development of owners and managers per country
1
2
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
66
1. Organisation and management

2. Finance, accounting and controlling
3. Services and maintaining oriented towards customer
4. Leading and motivating
5. Conflict and problem solving
6. Following national legislation
7. Following EU legislation and directives
8. Information knowledge and skills
9. Presentational skills
10. Mathematical-numerical knowledge and skills
11. Written/oral communication on mother language
12. Written/oral communication on foreign language
13. Information and general culture
14. Administrative knowledge and skills
alb
MDA
bih
MNE
hrv
Srb
kos*
TUR
MKD**
Figure 38 shows a regional overview of the most

important areas for development by owners and
managers. Although owners and managers from all
countries have confirmed that the improvement of
management skills (organisation and management,
leading and motivating) and presentation skills are
the most important for them, women entrepreneurs
from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo* and Serbia are
less interested in participating in some skills development programs compared to women entrepreneurs
in Croatia, Macedonia** and Moldova.
Findings
67
The most common reasons why training is organised

are to increase the quality of products and services,
to prepare employees for the tasks that they will perform and to improve the image of an enterprise.
When considering the type of training that would
be suitable for companies led by women entrepreneurs, it is important to know the educational level
of employees in these companies and to adjust level
of the training accordingly. The size of the company is
related to the educational level of employees. While
the medium-size companies tend to have a greater
the percentage of more lowly educated workers, the
highest percentage of the employees with a Masters
degree or a Ph.D. can be found in small (55%) and micro (29%) sized companies.
The way in which training is organised differs from
country to country, perhaps depending on whether
there is a reserved budget and the amount of funds
that are annually allocated for training in a particular
country. While some countries prefer the training to
be organised internally by a companys own experts,
women entrepreneurs from other countries prefer
outsourced services. One may speculate that the
choice of training type is linked to the implementa-
Conclusions and Recommendations
tion of different national and international projects.

Furthermore, these choices are linked to the familiarity of the WE with certain type of training and the
SME size. At the same time, the size of the enterprises has an impact on the main source of the funding
for HRD.
There are significant statistical differences between
the distribution methods of networking according to
SME size. Nevertheless, it is important to emphasize
that these differences are not present in relation to
the preferred distribution methods of networking for
future use.
Prior involvement in international women initiatives has a positive impact on the overall attitude toward mentoring among women entrepreneurs. When
considering new training initiatives, it would be desirable to involve women entrepreneurs who are already
active in certain initiatives. This study has also found
that the knowledge transfer process should be considered as long-term initiative. The initial involvement
of women prepares them as potential mentors in the
future years.
Training should also consider the issue of how a
company would fund that activity, such as grants
69
and loans. Unlike the availability of loans, the general

awareness of the availability of grants is much lower.
Nevertheless, the study indicates large differences
between countries on the use of loans. In general, the
research data indicates differences among countries
that should help in targeting topics that are suitable

for the training in certain countries and according to
the size of enterprise. Table 3 provides an overview of
the most important functional areas for development
in the near future per country and company size.
Table 3: Most important functional areas for development in the near future per country and company size
Small
first priority
Services and maintaining oriented
towards customer
Leading and motivating
Medium
ICT
Micro
Small
Medium
Micro

ICT
ICT
Small
Medium

towards customer
Presentational skills
size
Micro
ALB
BIH
HRV
KOS*
Micro
MKD
**
Small
Micro
Small
Medium
70

towards customer
towards customer
ICT
second priority
third priority

towards customer
towards customer
Finance, accounting and controlling
Organisation and management
Information and general culture
Conflict and problem solving

Following EU legislation and directives

towards customer
Following national legislation

towards customer
Written/oral communication on
foreign language
Written/oral communication on mother

language

Small
first priority
towards customer
Administrative knowledge and skills
towards customer
Medium
Following EU legislation and directives
SRB
Micro
TUR
Small
Medium
Micro

towards customer
Small
Medium

MDA
size
Micro
MNE
Small
Medium
Micro
second priority
third priority



towards customer
Written/oral communication on mother
language
ICT
Information knowledge and skills

towards customer

In 5 countries (Albania, Macedonia** Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia), the areas related to services
and maintaining a customer orientation have been
identified as the most important for the future in
micro-sized women-owned businesses. This shows
that micro enterprises indeed are mainly operating in
the services and related sectors and that in the future
they will have to increase their skills to be able to cope
with customer needs.
When it comes to small enterprises, the area of
leadership and motivation was identified as the most
important among women entrepreneurs in six coun-
Conclusions and Recommendations

tries. As companies grow and they start to employ

new staff, priorities also shift. Micro enterprises in the
future, should work more on developing their characteristics as leaders in a market and to learn how to
introduce new programs and incentives to motivate
their employees.
Finally, the area related to information, knowledge
and skills development was identified as the most important area by medium women-owned enterprises
in the region. Sharing and acquiring the information
needed (i.e. different markets, internationalization, etc.),
increasing knowledge and skills development were
71
identified as the areas most in need of intervention in

the future since those skills will help medium-size companies to become more competitive and to compete
with other players on domestic and foreign markets.
Although the sample varied from country to country, according to the number of companies sampled
and by the ratio of firms by size, all of the companies in the sample emphasized the need for training.
Having analysed the sample, it can be emphasized that
some areas of training that were emphasized include
ICT, leadership and motivation, and finance, accounting and controlling. Since entrepreneurship is one of
the key competencies and SEECELs entrepreneurial
learning definition highlights financial and economic
literacy as its key components, we must draw attention in the future to education and training precisely
72
in the above-mentioned areas as the key components

of entrepreneurial literacy.
Although the European Commission has frequently
stressed the importance of the process of internationalization, innovation and intellectual property rights,
those training topics are considered less important in
the sample. Women entrepreneurs from the sample
also considered the EU legislation and regulations to
be a less important area.
The EU development policies proposed through
the SBA process and training needs defined by women
entrepreneurs from the sample should be aligned
during the development of Training Modules. With adequately designed Training Modules, Training of Trainers could occur and advance the topics that are closer
to the actual needs of women entrepreneurs.
5.1. Index of tables

Table 1: Key Facts for WETNAS...............................................................................................................................................................................................19
Table 2: Completed questionnaires by country................................................................................................................................................................... 29
Table 3: Most important functional areas for development in the near future per country and company size..................................................... 70
5.2. Index of figures

Figure 1:
Sample dispersion by country and size of women-owned SMEs..................................................................................................................30
Figure 2: Demographic structure of WE sample by country........................................................................................................................................... 32
Figure 3: Educational structure of WE sample by country............................................................................................................................................. 33
Figure 4: Level of education and reason for getting into business activities...............................................................................................................34
Figure 5: Educational structure of employees...................................................................................................................................................................34
Figure 6: Company size and employees educational level.............................................................................................................................................. 35
Figure 7: Structure of employees by age and gender....................................................................................................................................................... 35
Figure 8: Distribution methods used for networking by SME size.................................................................................................................................36
Figure 9: Preferred networking tools by SME size for the future use............................................................................................................................ 37
Figure 10: Correlation between participation in International Women Initiatives and interest towards mentoring............................................38
Figure 11: Perception of the current business performance per country...................................................................................................................... 39
Figure 12: Business impact areas...........................................................................................................................................................................................40
Figure 13: Perceived availability of loans..............................................................................................................................................................................42
Figure 14: Perceived availability of grants............................................................................................................................................................................43
Figure 15: Use of loans per country.......................................................................................................................................................................................44
Figure 16: Use of grants per country......................................................................................................................................................................................45
Figure 17: Overview of perception of availability and usage of grants and loans.........................................................................................................46
Figure 18: Information on access to finance per country.................................................................................................................................................. 47
Figure 19: Sources of information on access to finance.....................................................................................................................................................48
Figure 20: Usage of alternative financial instruments per country.................................................................................................................................49
Figure 21: Share of attendance of start-up training by SMEs age.....................................................................................................................................51
Figure 22: Share of attendance of start-up training by company size..............................................................................................................................51
Figure 23: Method of training organised............................................................................................................................................................................... 52
74
Figure 24: Responsibility for human resources and training activities by SME size..................................................................................................... 53
Figure 25: Reasons for organizing training...........................................................................................................................................................................54
Figure 26: Existence of annually reserved budget for training investment by country............................................................................................... 55
Figure 27: Prevalence of annually reserved budget for training investment by SME size...........................................................................................56
Figure 28: HR investment trend in last three years............................................................................................................................................................56
Figure 29: Sources of funding for HR development............................................................................................................................................................ 57
Figure 30: Sources of funding for HR development by SME size...................................................................................................................................... 58
Figure 31: Usual means of finding information on available training by SME size....................................................................................................... 59
Figure 32: Importance of training topics for owners, managers and other employees............................................................................................... 59
Figure 33: Connection between reason for starting a business and training topics that owners and managers recognised as important...........60
Figure 34: Frequency of engagement with training providers..........................................................................................................................................62
Figure 35: Factors determining the selection of HR programs......................................................................................................................................... 63
Figure 36: Preferred timing for training delivery.................................................................................................................................................................64
Figure 37: Most important areas for development of owners and managers for owners, managers and employees...........................................65
Figure 38: Most important areas for development of owners and managers per country.........................................................................................66
5.3. References
1. DG Enterprise and Industry (2008) Evaluation on Policy: Promotion of Women Innovators and Entrepreneurship, European Commission.
2. ORegan, N., Stainer, L. and Sims, M. (2010) Training in SMEs and its relationship to profitability. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, Vol. 10, No. 2. p. 166-181.
3. OECD, et al. (2012) SME policy Index: Western Balkan and Turkey 2012: Progress in implementation of the Small Business Act for Europe,
OECD Publishing.
4. Overseas Development Institute (2005) Evidence-Based Policymaking: What is it? How does it work? What relevance for developing
countries?, p. 3
5. Piacentini, M. (2013), Women Entrepreneurs in the OECD: Key Evidence and Policy Challenges, OECD Social, Employment and Migration
Working Papers, No. 147, OECD Publishing.
6. SEECEL (2012) Training Needs Analysis for SMEs - Western Balkans and Turkeys Experience, p. 18
7. Vossenberg, S. (2013) Women Entrepreneurship Promotion in Developing Countries: What explains the gender gap in entrepreneurship
and how to close it?, Maastricht School of Management.
Indexes and References
75
6.1.
Annex 1: WETNAS Pilot Institutions
no.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Name of the Institution

SHGPAZ - Albanian National Professional Businesswomen and Crafts Association
Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Srpska
Croatian Chamber of Economy
Womens Business Association SHE-RA
Business Confederation of Macedonia**
Center for the Advancement of Women in Business ICAWB
Directorate for Development of SMEs
Association of Business Women in Serbia
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey TOBB supported by KOSGEB
Annexes
77
alb
Micro
Small
Med.
bih
Micro
Small
Med.
hrv
Micro
Small
Med.
kos*
Micro
Small
78
11
5
6
2
10
7
3
8
6
2
2
30
29
1
2
28
6
9
13
24
8
11
5
14
10
4
28
28
1
1
1
5
1
5
1
1
2
1
1
7
3
4
6
4
2
20
16
4
1
1
16
11
4
1
22
16
6
43
38
4
1
43
42
1
4
4
3
1
1
1
3
3
17
15
2
15
9
6
8
5
3
6
4
2
13
6
6
1
22
20
2
8
4
4
4
2
2
24
23
1
4
4
4
4
1
1
1
1
arts, entertainment and

recreation
23
12
10
1
13
9
3
1
82
72
10
18
5
11
2
9
8
1
19
14
5
18
15
3
3
3
9
8
14
12
2
12
7
5
37
36
1
17
17
17
17
1
20
20
6
6
total
education
health
professional, scientific,
technica and support
service activities
real estate activities
12
11
1
financial and insurance

activities
20
8
10
2
9
7
2
information and
communication
accommodation and food

service activities
transportation and
storage
wholesale and retail

trade; repair of motor
vehicles and motorcycles
construction
water supply; sewerage,

waste management and
remediation activities
electricity, gas, steam and

airconditioning supply
manufacturing
mining and quarring
agriculture, forestry and

fishing
NACE sectors (version 2)
6.2.
Annex 2: NACE Sectors
201
101
81
19
136
84
43
9
282
244
33
5
202
197
5
manufacturing
12
8
4
2
1
1
12
5
7
22
13
8
1
2
2
1
23
11
11
1
11
9
2
7
2
5
116
Annexes
14
11
3
5
2
2
1
12
21
6
12
3
41
10
14
17
202
2
1
1
4
1
3
11
2
1
1
2
1
1
2
15
8
2
6
11
2
8
1
10
8
2
13
6
2
5
28
15
9
4
104
information and
communication
10
5
5
14
8
6
19
16
3
10
10
7
6
1
30
25
5
5
2
3
25
10
15
7
5
2
4
4
2
2
16
14
2
11
6
4
1
14
10
4
4
3
1
10
9
1
10
10
16
15
1
18
18
24
23
1
8
6
2
10
5
5
14
6
7
1
16
6
8
2
137
16
9
3
4
12
6
6
10
10
5
4
1
12
7
5
16
14
2
5
4
1
30
26
2
2
16
13
3
118
97
52
271
5
1
2
2
44
19
5
10
4
122
17
12
4
1
12
6
5
1
26
23
3
21
19
2
7
2
3
2
21
15
5
1
134
14
12
2
9
6
3
6
6
19
11
8
122
total

recreation
health
education
service activities

activities

service activities
33
27
4
2
53
31
15
7
37
30
6
1
33
26
4
3
19
13
5
1
299
transportation and
storage

construction


mining and quarring

fishing
mkd**
Micro
Small
Med.
mda
Micro
Small
Med.
MNE
Micro
Small
Med.
SRB
Micro
Small
Med.
TUR
Micro
Small
Med.
total
209
151
54
4
206
117
78
11
182
162
19
1
203
131
51
21
235
118
85
32
1856
79
6.3.
KOS*
80
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
1
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
1
4
0
0
0
2
4
0
1
3
11
3
2
0
0
0
1
0
0
3
9
4
0
2
5
9
5
1
1
16
18
8
0
5
28
8
2
0
0
4
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
4
12
3
0
0
5
4
0
0
0
2
7
3
0
3
9
5
0
0
0
11
4
0
0
0
5
6
2
0
1
9
9
3
0
0
0
4
0
0
0
2
4
2
0
0
3
4
0
1
0
6
8
9
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
2
1
3
0
0
2
1
1
0
0
1
1
2
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
2
17
3
1
0
6
3
3
1
3
28
32
16
3
12
18
7
0
0
0
3
5
11
0
0
2
0
1
0
0
3
3
4
2
1
8
5
3
0
0
10
3
5
0
2
4
3
0
0
1
9
6
3
1
2
4
0
0
0
total
0
3
9
5
1
0
6
3
0
0
2
4
5
2
1
1
3
10
2
1

recreation
service activities

activities
information and
communication

service activities
transportation and
storage

construction

1
2
13
11
1
4
2
7
9
2
0
2
8
4
2
4
10
12
2
0

0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
health
HRV
0
2
6
3
0
0
2
5
3
0
0
4
2
2
0
9
9
11
1
0
education
BIH
<=29
30-39
40-49
50-59
>=60
<=29
30-39
40-49
50-59
>=60
<=29
30-39
40-49
50-59
>=60
<=29
30-39
40-49
50-59
>=60
manufacturing
ALB
mining and quarring

fishing
Annex 3: Owners Ages and nace sectors
2
51
89
56
3
8
43
51
29
5
9
89
112
60
12
37
89
64
11
1
Annexes
0
1
6
1
0
1
1
2
7
0
0
2
6
2
0
0
5
4
2
0
3
14
7
4
0
0
1
8
1
0
0
4
1
0
0
0
1
3
0
0
0
4
5
1
0
1
3
0
1
0
0
7
7
0
0
2
2
10
10
1
0
4
3
3
0
1
2
4
7
0
4
5
5
2
0
2
7
9
1
0
0
3
3
1
0
0
6
3
1
0
0
7
6
2
1
1
5
4
2
0
0
1
5
4
0
2
1
1
0
0
0
5
6
4
1
0
0
3
5
2
2
5
7
2
0
0
1
5
1
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
13
4
0
1
0
1
1
3
0
1
2
1
1
0
1
14
12
2
1
0
7
7
2
0
0
12
9
3
0
2
12
12
4
0
2
9
3
2
0
0
3
8
4
2
0
2
4
3
3
0
4
17
2
3
0
2
2
3
0
0
7
10
3
1
6
7
6
2
0
3
3
3
0
0
0
3
1
2
0
1
7
3
3
0
1
10
6
2
0
total
0
8
2
1
0
1
7
3
2
1
0
1
4
1
2
0
3
6
3
0
1
8
7
3
0

recreation
service activities

activities
information and
communication

service activities
transportation and
storage

4
15
12
2
0
10
9
14
19
1
0
13
16
8
0
1
9
16
8
1
4
3
11
1
0
health
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
2
0
0
0
education
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
1
2
0
0
construction
0
5
4
3
0
1
12
6
4
0
0
1
8
2
0
1
4
8
7
1
3
12
18
7
1

0
0
1
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
2
2
0
0

manufacturing
0
2
7
3
0
1
8
7
6
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
7
0
7
0
1
2
3
1
0
mining and quarring

fishing

mkd** <=29
30-39
40-49
50-59
>=60
MDA <=29
30-39
40-49
50-59
>=60
MNE <=29
30-39
40-49
50-59
>=60
SRB <=29
30-39
40-49
50-59
>=60
TUR <=29
30-39
40-49
50-59
>=60
14
72
93
27
3
21
61
63
55
6
0
66
81
28
7
6
64
71
57
5
26
90
86
31
2
81
82
Notes
83
84
Notes
85
86
Notes
87
The project Women Entrepreneurship a Job Creation Engine for South Eastern Europe is:
Financed by
Implemented by
Supported by
and
This publication has been produced with a financial assistance of the Kingdom of Sweden. The contents of this publication are the sole
responsibility of SEECEL and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of any of the parties participating in the
project implementation.

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A Systematic Approach in the Western

Balkans, Turkey and Moldova

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

The South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial

each member state. The representatives come from

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

SEECEL Women Entrepreneurs (WE) member

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status,

In the rest of the text, the country abbreviations will be (in

Both the public and private sectors around the world

A comprehensive analysis was carried out, bolstered by

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

in line with the Small Business Act (SBA) for Europe

entrepreneur networks & associations, based on the

the training available in the SEECEL WE member

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

4 Good practices per country which meet the criteria broadly

internationally promoted and also available for peer learning

MDA 206, MNE 182, SRB 203 and TUR - 235

(tool) for WE CoP members and beyond

5.1. Index of Tables

2.2. Methodological Framework

3.1. Data Collection Instruments

5. Indexes & references

6.1. Annex 1: WETNAS Pilot Institutions

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

7 European Commission, DG ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTRY:

WOMEN INNOVATORS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP http://

In the SEECEL WE countries entrepreneurship is also

cused development of the womens entrepreneurship

key 2012: Progress in implementation of the Small Business

key 2012: Progress in implementation of the Small Business

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

the area of womens entrepreneurship in SEECEL WE

In view of the above, the SEECEL WE countries have

Table 1: Key Facts for WETNAS

GDP per capita (US $)

SEECEL uses the Open Method of Coordination

Methodology: Theory and Practice

SEECEL has established the Women Entrepreneurs

their decisions in a way that increases the efficency of

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

Based on the previous successful SEECEL experience

Methodology: Theory and Practice

and prepare the instrument until it was finalised. In

The existing literature showed no broadly agreed

example, in Croatia one of the main sectors would be

Any NACE sector

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

businesses are increasingly affected by the actions

Methodology: Theory and Practice

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

The findings and analysis presented in this chapter

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

Table 2: Completed questionnaires by country

This section provides general information about the

Figure 1: Sample dispersion by country and size of women-owned

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

In Figure 1, micro enterprises are prevalent in all

and motorcycles sector (16.2% of the total number of

Figure 2: Demographic structure of WE sample by country

As presented in Figure 2, a low presence of young